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Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

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Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#311

Post by scythe »

ngvrnd wrote: post #277
nivertech wrote: post #109

Larger animals can be inspected individually to find pathogens or diseases. Insects are so small that it's practically impossible to inspect each individual organism. You can do sampling of the batch, but the odds of missing bad ones are still high. Same with the fruits and vegetables, some are easy to inspect, others are almost impossible, or impossible to clean. There are kosher (insect-free) versions of lettuce an…

Ah, just run 'em all under a cobalt-60 source. (joke)

To irradiate food, you need to keep the photon energy below 1.022 MeV, or you get residual radioactivity due to pair production.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#312

Post by mrguyorama »

fzfaa wrote: post #174
0x20cowboy wrote: post #35

I don’t get why it’s so hard for people to just stop eating animals.

1) Because I don't want to, and 2) because my enemies want me to.

Really? Enemies? You genuinely think people want you to eat less meat because they're your enemy?

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#313

Post by prometheus76 »

orlp wrote: post #94
weberer wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>my intuition here was way off. I expected insects to pose far fewer risks from parasites to humans. Weird, my intuition was the exact opposite. The thought of eating bugs triggers a disgust reaction, similar to the thought of eating crap. Humans developed those reactions over hundreds of generations for a reason.

A disgust of eating insects is not universal in all cultures.

A lot of cultures also have much higher rates of parasitical infestation because they are too poor (or have been historically) to avoid it.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#314

Post by mrguyorama »

xienze wrote: post #154
bloak wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think disgust is "innate". A typical English person finds squid disgusting, but is happy to eat various kinds of cheese, including ones like Stilton with mould on them. Someone in Japan, on the other hand ... Also, everyone has heard at least one story of a young child eating an earthworm they found in the garden. It seems to be only after seeing the reaction of older children and adults that they learn to fi…

> I don't think disgust is "innate". Sure it is. Did someone have to teach you not to eat shit? Or green meat that smells like death? Certain smells and physical appearances trigger reactions in our bodies that tell us "stay away." That there might be certain groups of people that act in contrary ways is an exception, and doesn't disprove anything.

You haven't been around many babies have you? You absolutely have to stop them from trying to eat shit

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#315

Post by scythe »

wyre wrote: post #92
markdown wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only little backyard operations use animal manure. No large food chain will carry greens grown in animal manure.

Maybe so, but how does that explain how E. coli outbreaks on lettuce? From what I understand the waste from animal farms run off into waterways that feed the vegetable farms.

Rabbits? It's not exactly easy ensure there are no animals across thousands of square miles of farmland.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#316

Post by scythe »

ramblerman wrote: post #203

If insects were such a valuable and risk free source of nutrition wouldn't we see a lot more human cultures eating them? They've been around forever, but somehow we share a mostly common disgust for eating bugs. Is it farfetched to assume that perhaps that disgust allowed us to survive.

They're not a practical food source. They're hard to farm, they taste bad, they're subject to predators, etc. There are lots of cultures that eat a few insects but I've never seen a single one that gets >33% of their daily protein from insects. The human gut produces chitinase but I don't know how it would react to tens of grams of chitin per day.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#318

Post by mrguyorama »

adrianN wrote: post #31
Gigachad wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating the bugs never really made sense when they are less efficient and more expensive than plants.

People like variety in their diet, insects are good sources of protein and they eat stuff that we can't eat.

What's the solution to the "an antenna/leg is stuck in my teeth" problem that I experienced when I ate crickets? The actual bug part was inoffensive, lightly dusted with salt, and had a satisfying crunch, but the legs and antenna stick to your mouth like a hair and make it hard to eat.

As others have stated, 2 billion people eat insects, surely not all of them eat legged insects, but I wonder how the ones that do deal with it. Do they just suffer through it? It's not exactly going to stop you if you're hungry

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#319

Post by the_only_law »

wyre wrote: post #96
thethirdone wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is my understanding that the reason to eat bugs is the increased protein density. In a vegan diet, getting a sufficient number of calories is quite easy, but getting enough complete protein while not over-filling on calories is tougher.

Soy exists and is a complete protein.

Is it? Every time vegan/vegetarianism or carnivore diets come up, it’s always a massive debate on whether suplimental proteins are any good.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#320

Post by prometheus76 »

eth0up wrote: post #282
prometheus76 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those same populations have much higher parasitic infections as well. That's the whole point of the study on which we are commenting.

The greyness of your comment possibly indicates it has been deemed bigoted. It's relevant regardless. The subject of human parasitology certainly shows geographic and cultural distributions. One example is a strange case of neurocysticercosis, perhaps the most common cause of epilepsy and result of taenia solium or pork tapeworm. The case I recall involved a Jewish family, all infected and symptomatic. Doctors had di…

Look at a map of countries that eat insects. Compare it to a map of per capita parasitic infections.

The study above indicates that this is not just a correlation.

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